Taz Video

Saturday was Valentine's Day. It was also the first day we've had in a while where the wind wasn't blowing very hard. I decided to take advantage of this meteorological respite and shoot the remaining chroma-key scenes I needed for my Taz instruction video. (If you have no idea what the previous sentence means, just watch the video embedded at the bottom of this post. Thanks.)

I normally do my long run on Saturday mornings, but due to several factors (mostly the outdoor temperature and my own slothfulness), I decided to swim instead. It was an excellent workout, and I left the pool feeling really perky. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then called Tanner to see if he could help me with the video. He said he could.

If time permits, I always like to have him play me a couple of songs on the piano before we head out for whatever it is we're going to do. It's always a joy to hear the new material he's working on, whether it's his own composition or some great jazz standard from the past. We probably should've shot the video first, since the wind would indeed come up a bit later...but I wanted to take advantage of my free concert first. (By the way, we'll be posting a couple of his new songs within the next few weeks. Stay tuned.)

Before long, though, we headed over to the local park. We used clothespins to hang our backdrop on a baseball backstop, probably counfounding the folks who were using the park for frisbee flinging. "Hey, look, Ethel! What're them fellers doin' with that big bedsheet they's a tryin' to hang on that there fence? Maybe it's that artist feller Crisco tryin' out another one o' them crazy tent things he calls art cuz he cain't draw nuthin'." Or perhaps our citizens are now so well conditioned to ignore anomalous behavior that no one would give us a second glance. In any case, we were able to complete our videography without being disturbed...except for the one gust of wind that sent a half dozen of our clothespins flying like shrapnel.

It was colder than it looks on the video, so we decided that we were satisfied with the second take. Given better resources (ie, a studio, some reflectors, a few grips and gophers, better mikes, some actual onscreen talent, etc.) we could've achieved better results, but even artistes such as ourselves (cough) are willing to make compromises under extenuating circumstances. Please note, though, that if you'd like to see higher quality output from these projects, we are willing to talk about accepting large sums of investor cash. Just let me know.

Here's today's contribution to the global storehouse of swimming technique instruction:

The rest of our day was spent consuming burritos at Chipotle and discussing world politics and economics. I think we concluded the conversation by agreeing that market forces could probably do a better job of fixing the economy than Congress can. But I guess we'll never know for sure.

It does make me wonder, though, how much clearer our government's vision would be if they discussed each bill over a yummy burrito rather than sitting there in those fancy chairs that you wouldn't want to spill salsa on. Maybe then the pork would be in the cuisine rather than in the legislation.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Eat more beans, and swim more Taz. And have a great day!